Arena Football

Pure off-the-wall fun. Welcome to the AFL and our exclusive review.

Here's a great sequence that sums up Arena Football. It's the fourth quarter, and with four seconds remaining in the game, the Arizona Rattlers scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion to go up by six points over my San Jose Sabercats. All is lost, right? In Arena Football, you will quickly learn, no game is ever out of reach.

On the ensuing kickoff, my receiver sprinted left, following his lead blocker. He then throws a vicious stiff-arm, shakes a tackler and sprints loose down the left sideline. On the way, the opposing coach just happened to be standing on the field, and the receiver was sure to lower his shoulder and knock the coach to the ground before crossing the goal line to tie the game.

While celebrating, the receiver started bowing to the crowd and yelling, "I'd like to thank all you people over here," and then, turning around, "and all the people over here." Suddenly, an angry Rattler defender pummels my receiver and screams, "You're welcome, punk!" The ensuing extra-point wins the game for San Jose with no time left on the clock.

You'll go head-over-heels for Arena Football whether you like it or not.

Yeah, that wild, rough-and-tumble sequence of Arena Football embodies exactly what EA Sports was trying to capture when it set out to create the an AFL-licensed football game. It should come as no surprise then that, with coaches being pounded to the ground, some of the best tackling animations ever seen in videogame football and on-field smack talking, that Arena Football was developed by the same deranged minds that brought us the Outlaw Golf series, now working with EA Tiburon.

Of course, Tiburon is the outstanding development studio that handles the Madden NFL and NCAA Football franchises, and no less effort went into Arena Football, one of the most enjoyable gridiron experiences of the year.

First thing's first though. This is Arena football, not to be confused with that stuff the Steelers and Seahawks will be playing in the Super Bowl. The field is only 50 yards long and is surrounded by walls, like a hockey rink with turf. Arena is eight-on-eight, Ironman football in which six of eight players go both ways. It's high scoring; the average game tops 100 total points. It's hard-hitting, it's fast and it's fun.